New Year's is the traditional time to think about reNEWal. New places, new friends, new opportunities. Maybe even a new love! Back in 1985, a new wave duo (that included a former member of Frankie Goes To Hollywood) put out an album called "New Beginnings." What was the name of the band?

With the Mayan Apocalypse come and gone, there are many appropriate doomsday songs from the 80's to play. Prince's "1999" is an obvious choice, also Love & Rockets' recording of "Ball of Confusion," The Cure's "Grinding Halt," Depeche Mode's "Told You So," Time Zone's "World Destruction," . . . this list could go on forever! But what about R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)?" It's a great tune, following the form of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and Reunion's "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)." (The song later inspired Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire," but let's not hold that against R.E.M.) 

Michael Stipe said that part of the stream of consciousness lyrics for "It's The End Of The World . . . " were inspired by a dream he had that was filled with well known people with the same initials. Four such well known people are mentioned in the song, what are the names?

Sadly, musician Ravi Shankar passed away this week. It may seem like an odd acknowledgement to mention Shankar in a forum dedicated to 80's Trivia. After all, Ravi Shankar might be more readily associated with the 60's, George Harrison, Monterey Pop, and (of course) Woodstock. But such was Shankar's relevance and influence. At one point he was considered to be the most internationally recognizable person from the whole of India. He was considered to be one of, if not the pre-eminint, masters of the Sitar. His international success paved the way artists like Monsoon, Sheila Chandra, and Ofra Haza to score hits on the western pop culture charts, not to mention encouraging the "world beat" phenomenon of the mid 80's (with a little help from globalization, of course). And anyone who is a fan of music in general could not be unmoved by the expressiveness, artistry, and complexity of Ravi Shankar's music. Shankar's catalog of recordings spans the past five decades. In 1982, he got an Academy Award nomination for the soundtrack he recorded for one of the great epic bio-pics of the 80's. Shankar was the obvious choice for the gig, too. What was the name of the film?